Bryan Alvarez said during Monday’s episode of Wrestling Observer Live, that he had heard under the new TKO contracts that WWE talent can take their names with them when or if they leave the company. Alvarez then went on to say that WWE will trademark everything and then give it back to the talent when or if they leave the company.
Alvarez gave an example with Ethan Page and how WWE has filed to trademark his name, but will give it back to him should he leave the company.
Now according to Fightful Select, a discussion that WWE had decided to turn over use of wrestler names got “massively misconstrued online.”
Fightful Select also notes that WWE does not have the ability, (in most cases) to prevent a talent from using a name they used before coming to WWE and then having the company trademark it. Examples given are Lince Dorado, Adam Cole, Eric Young, Roderick Strong, Mercedes Martinez, Samoa Joe, Sting, Mustafa Ali, Toni Storm, Kyle O’Reilly, and Chris Jericho. These talent had been established well before they had spent time in WWE.
The report further notes that for talent who use their real names, there’s no way WWE can prevent them from using their real names outside the company. This is said to be a reason why Warrior, Ryback, Chyna and Test changed their legal names to their ring names, in an effort to get around that.
Christian Cage was never simply “Christian” before and after his time in WWE, so that is why he can use that part of his name. Metalik used that name before he signed a deal with WWE, but not “Gran Metalik,” so he can to use the Metalik part. Another example is Cody Rhodes, where he went only by “Cody.” The reason was that WWE owned the last name of “Rhodes” is because he only ever appeared for WWE under that name. Eventually, WWE turned over the Rhodes name to Cody.
Fightful Select concluded by saying they reached out to numerous sources with WWE that confirmed details. Anthem allows TNA talent to take their in-ring names with them when or if they leave the company.